Thursday, September 28, 2017

Eight Not So Healthy Food Combinations You Never Knew!

Have you ever felt, that you are not getting the health benefits that you deserve after eating plant based food, organic food and all sorts of healthy food. While there can be other reasons to it, one of the common reason is eating your health food, in wrong combinations.

Eating health food is not the key to good health, the key to good health is eating the right food at the right time. Our body digests food in a complicated way. It gives preference in breaking down and digesting certain food groups over others. Though the food breakdown and their digestion order depends on a lot of factors like the bond complexity of the food, the amount of fiber, the pH of the stomach etc. Here we will list some commonly mis-combined food items which should be avoided to give you a kick start to good health.

Fruits with Meal

It is a common misconception, that substituting sweet after food with fruits will help us trim our waist. It is however just the opposite. Eating fruits after a meal makes the digestion slow, making the carbohydrate breakdown slower due to the acidic nature of fruits, and at the same time, the nutrients from the food do not get absorbed properly but having fruits is still less in calories than having sweet after meal. The best time to eat fruits is mid meals i.e mid morning, mid afternoon.

2. Chapati and Rice

Mixing two carbohydrates with high glycemic index is not a good idea. Carbohydrates get digested in intestines and mixing them only causes fermentation, which produces gas and causes bloating. It is advisable to maintain a gap of two hours between consumption of two grains. Acidity and gastric can show slight gain in the weight too so such combinations are better to be avoided especially in people who suffer from gastric disturbances often.

3. Fruit with Milk

Fruits are quick to get digested when eaten along, and milk being a protein takes longer time. When the two are combined together, the acidity in fruits curdles the milk so can cause acidity and bloating in some people.

4. Cold Drinks with Food

It is a common practice to have water or drinks with food, however having a cold drink along with food lowers the temperature, and slows down the breakdown of food by stomach bacteria. Things like buttermilk or lassi work as natural probiotic hence improves digestion.

5. Curd with Sugar

Sugar is digested and absorbed in the intestine, it passes through the stomach very quickly, but the curd takes time to get through. This causes the sugar to stay longer in stomach and causes fermentation of the curd, resulting in bloating.

6. Rice and Milk

Kheer, Firni, and Milk Poha are few popular homemade desserts. However combining the protein in milk and starch in rice can make digestion slower as starches are digested in an alkaline medium and proteins are digested through acids.

7. Dal and Rice

Hardly any Indian balanced diet picture is complete without dal and rice, and that again is a protein and starch combination. Ever noticed that you feel bloated and heavy after having dal and rice, that’s because of the longer time to process this combination that results in fermentation so try to avoid such a combination especially at night.

8. Salad with Salt

Salt pulls out the water and along with it the nutrients from the salad, which leaves it drained. Consuming this salad will not help you with any specific health benefit except giving a feeling of fullness for a short while. So even if you need salt in your salad, try sprinkling it right before consumption.

Avoid these combinations, to gain maximum health benefits of all the health food that you are consuming. Also, one combination that is sure to reap the maximum benefit to health is healthy food and exercise. Eat well, stay fit!!